Pope Leo XIV has backed the reform of marriage annulment procedures decreed by his predecessor Francis in 2015.
Catholic marriages are fundamentally indissoluble and judgements on their nullity should not be manipulated by a misunderstood mercy, Pope Leo emphasised in the Vatican on Friday.
"Nevertheless, true mercy must be practised precisely in the legitimate exercise of judicial power," he said on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the reform by Pope Francis.
Leo was speaking to prospective jurists of the Roman Rota, the ecclesiastical court of last instance in marriage annulment proceedings.
Leo XIV, himself a doctor of canon law, emphasised that the purpose of the reform at the time, namely better accessibility and greater speed in proceedings, which should never be at the expense of the truth, was an expression of both justice and mercy.
Marriage as the standard of true love
Marriage is "not an ideal", but the "standard of true love between man and woman: total, faithful, fruitful love", the Pope emphasised his words at the Holy Year Meeting of Families in June.
Leo encouraged couples to resolve conflicts in marriage through mediation and arbitration. Nevertheless, there are cases in which the procedural route is necessary.
The Pope emphasised that the "salvation of souls" is the highest law and goal of marriage processes in the Church.
In the Catholic Church, marriages are indissoluble. In certain cases, however, it can be established in retrospect that a marriage was invalid.
Reasons can be formal errors, such as the absence of witnesses.
In most cases, however, so-called defects of will or defects of knowledge are asserted, for example if one partner excludes children from the outset.
There are separate ecclesiastical courts to decide on validity.
If an annulment is granted, the parties involved may enter into a second Catholic marriage in accordance with church law.
In 2015, Francis considerably simplified the procedure for examining the validity of marriages and shortened the duration of the process.
However, this reform was not intended to increase the number of annulled marriages, but to speed up the processes, the Pope told the Roman Rota at the end of January. He had the well-being of those affected in mind.